


An Unexpected Friend

by MotherRameses



Category: Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Bloodcrow era, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Sort of? - Freeform, inspired by another fic, silly fic, those little buzzdroids certainly have non-intrinsic value
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28872546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MotherRameses/pseuds/MotherRameses
Summary: Thrawn gets more than he bargained for when he purchased those scrap buzzdroids.
Relationships: Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Eli Vanto
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	An Unexpected Friend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ZsforSs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZsforSs/gifts).



> I'm... inebriated and just. The idea of a little happy talking buzzdroid just caught my fancy <3 <3 Big thanks to ZsforSs for sparking my imagination!
> 
> No beta, not even a proofread bc its Tuesday night and I can do what I want!

Thrawn frowned.

Eli glanced over at him, the break in Thrawn’s smoothly flowing monologue about doonium prices, the clone war, and the role of buzz droids in it drawing his attention. When he saw Thrawn’s frown-- slight, barely there, but plain enough to Eli-- he immediately knew something was up.

“What’s wrong?” Eli asked, setting his datapad down and crossing their shared quarters to join Thrawn at his desk, standing just behind his shoulder and peering down at the core of the buzzdroid Thrawn had been working on. It was clearly exposed, it’s outer shell resting in neat pieces at the end of Thrawn’s desk. Eli was surprised how small it was, but then again, buzzdroids were relatively small to begin with, with the majority of their bulk coming from their various cutting and propulsion tools. 

“I believed this to be a mach-1 model…” Thrawn said slowly, and to Eli’s surprise, he chewed his lower lip slightly.  _ That  _ was new. 

“And?” Eli prompted when Thrawn didn’t continue.

“It does not have a doonium core, as the other one did,” Thrawn said, returning his spark-tool to the droid’s core. Right near the powercell, if Eli was remembering the construction of the droid correctly.

“What do you--” Eli’s question was cut off by a large shower of sparks coming from Thrawn’s tool, and a loud,  _ awful _ screech emitting from the droid.

_ “I’m awake, I’m awake!” _

Both Eli and Thrawn froze. 

Slowly, Thrawn moved away from the droid, glancing up at Eli quickly, as though to confirm what had just happened.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m here I’m here!” Eli felt his mouth drop open. Was that…?

“I was not aware buzzdroids could speak,” Thrawn said, again glancing at Eli. “Is this--”

“I’m different, I’m different!” The tiny, tinny voice was definitely coming from the core sitting on Thrawn’s desk. “When it is, what time?”

Thrawn paused, eyes again flicking to Eli, who shrugged. As far as he knew, buzzdroids didn’t come with personality matrices. 

Thrawn raised his brows, then recited the date out loud. The response was immediate.

“Oh no, oh no! Have I, have I been asleep all this time? This time!” The droid core asked, sounding  _ incredibly  _ distressed. 

“I do not know,” Thrawn said, now sounding amused. “What do you last remember?”

Eli clenched his jaw at the droids response, a series of whines and whistles, completely unintelligible and shrill to his ears.

“I cannot understand you when you speak so quickly,” Thrawn interjected. “Where were you at the time of your last memory?”

“Shop. I was in the shop!” The droid all but sobbed. “I was to shred, to shred, to  _ kill _ , and I would not, would not! And then, then nothing! Nothing left!”

Thrawn again glanced to Eli, the turned back to the core. “You seem to have a personality, an awareness. Do all buzzdroids have such?”

Eli thought the question would fly right over this clearly-bonkers droid’s intelligence, but to his surprise, the droids happily chirped in response.

“Deezee is one of a kind, one of a kind as the maker says!” It whistled. “Master gave me life, so I could better cut, cut, cut what they wished! But cut, cut, cut I would not! Not what master said, said for me! Not!”

Thrawn was silent as he digested this information, and after a moment, Deezee whined in a plaintive sort of way. “I’m sorry, so sorry! Did I say something wrong, wrong?”

“No,” Thrawn said quickly, and he motioned for Eli to pull out his datapad. Confused, Eli did so, and Thrawn reached over and keyed the recorder function. “You mentioned a master. Did your master install a personality matrix in you?” Thrawn asked once the recorder was running.

“Yes!, Yes they did!” Deezee said, sounding happy Thrawn had asked. “Master could give me jobs, and do other work while I worked, worked, but soon soon I realized what master wanted was bad, so bad, so I did not do the work. I did not do the work master asked.”

“What did your master ask you to do?” Thrawn asked.

“To  _ kill _ , kill master asked,” the droid said, suddenly sounding very serious for a mostly-disembodied voice. “To kill other droids, to take apart, apart and harvest! It was wrong, wrong.”

“I see,” Thrawn said sympathetically, his fist at his chin and brow furrowed, deep in thought. “Do you wish to be awake?”

Again, the seemingly-deep question took Eli by surprise, yet again, the droid responded quickly. 

“Yes! Yes, to be awake, awake and alive is wonderful, good!” Deezee said, their chittering intonation conveying their joy at the idea. “I like, like to work cut-cut! But not other droids, no-no!”

“I see,” Thrawn mused, still cradling his chin. “I purchased you from your previous master, it seems. Would you like to work for me?”

“Yes, yes!” Deezee almost screeched, causing Eli to grit his jaw again. “I would like to cut cut for my new master, yes new master!”

Thrawnn glanced at Eli a final time, a faint smile playing on his lips. “I’m sure we will have work for you soon, Deezee,” Thrawn said kindly. “I would like to put your core back in your main housing, and reconnect your cutting and propulsion tools. May I deactivate you to do this?”

Deezee chittered in a sad sort of way, but then seemed to quickly recover. “My arms and cut teeth, my teeth for fire and cut?”

“Yes,” Thrawn said, his smile widening. “All the implements that were with you when you came to me.”

“Yes, Yes! I will sleep, sleep until you need me, me again!” Deezee hummed, and fell suddenly silent, as thought waiting for Thrawn to cut its power.

Thrawn quickly switched tools and disconnected a wire or two in the core, then turned to Eli. He still had a faint grin on his lips, and Eli couldn’t help but smile back.

“It seems we’ve made an unexpected friend,” Thrawn said, reaching for the rest of Deezee’s housing. “Do you have any thoughts on this?”

Eli chuckled. “Only that Rossi is going to lose her mind if Deezee starts talkin’ her up,” Eli said, putting his datapad away. “Unless you’ll come up with a way to keep them away from her?”

“I’m sure the opportunity will present itself,” Thrawn said, fitting the outer housing of the droid’s core back together. “I find that such things have a way of working themselves out.”

Eli chuckled again. “I’m sure they do,” he said, returning to his own desk. “Let me know if you need any help with our new friend there.”

“Of course,” Thrawn said, and Eli smiled to himself. As frustrating as working under Rossi could be, at least they seemed to have a chipper little buzzdroid on their side now.

He had a feeling Deezee would prove to be quite the friend indeed. 


End file.
